Veterans' groups rip Richard Burr over VA

Leading veterans groups are lashing out against Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) for an open letter he wrote scolding the organizations for not doing more to condemn Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki.

Calling Burr’s letter a “monumental cheap shot” and a “disgusting ambush style of politics,” Veterans of Foreign Wars’ commander in chief William A. Thien and John E. Hamilton, the adjutant general, said on Monday that Burr should be ashamed of his conduct.

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“Senator, this is clearly one of the most dishonorable and grossly inappropriate acts that we’ve witnessed in more than forty years of involvement with the veteran community and breaches the standards of the United States Senate. Your allegations are ugly and mean-spirited in every sense of the words and are profoundly wrong, both logically and morally. Quite frankly Senator, you should be ashamed,” Thien and Hamilton wrote.

In the open letter on Friday, Burr said that aside from the American Legion, which called for Shinseki’s resignation early this month after reports surfaced of veterans dying while on wait lists at VA hospitals, other veterans’ groups seemed “more interested in defending the status quo within the V.A., protecting their relationships with the agency, and securing access to the secretary and his inner circle.”

“Last week’s hearing made it clear to me that the (veterans’ groups executive) staff has ignored the constant VA problems expressed by their members and is more interested in their own livelihoods and Washington connections than they are to the needs of their own members,” Burr wrote.

Paralyzed Veterans of America National President Bill Lawson and Executive Director Homer Townsend Jr. wrote that Burr represents “the worst of politics in this country.”

“Your attitude and actions reflects great discredit upon the United States Senate and every member of Congress should be embarrassed by your ‘open’ letter. Only a politician would be so bold as to believe he or she knows better what veterans want and need than actual veterans themselves. You clearly represent the worst of politics in this country,” they wrote.

And the Disabled American Veterans wrote that it is clear Burr would rather have heard them call for Shinseki to resign than to hear how to actually fix the VA.

“Senator Burr may be enamored with the idea that all of VA’s problems and challenges can be overcome by replacing one Secretary, but the plain facts and simple logic indicate otherwise. If Senator Burr believes that calling for the resignation of Secretary Shinseki is the only measure of whether a leader cares about veterans, perhaps he should check with Speaker Boehner, Chairman Miller and numerous Republican Senate colleagues who have not yet done so,” the group said in a statement.

But Burr isn’t backing down. In response to the letters from the veterans’ groups, Burr said in a statement to CQ Roll Call on Sunday that his letter outraged the groups more than the scandal engulfing the Veterans Affairs.

“The VSOs’ response is a rousing defense of the status quo at VA,” Burr said. “It’s clear that my open letter to America’s veterans has outraged some VSOs more than the scandals at VA — I believe their testimony stands on its own.”